New Hanover, Brunswick, Pender and Columbus schools closed Friday

Icy roads made for hazardous travel conditions Thursday, and the Cape Fear region can expect much of the same through Friday afternoon, forecasters predict. Four school districts – New Hanover, Brunswick, Pender and Columbus counties – and Cape Fear Community College announced Thursday afternoon that schools would remain closed to students and staff on Friday. UNCW classes resume at 11 a.m. Friday.The National Weather Service in Wilmington warned of icy roads and dangerous commuting conditions Friday morning."The accumulations of ice still cover most roadways across the region," the weather service said. "On many roads, the sleet has transitioned to a solid sheet of ice one inch or more thick."Light snow and freezing rain that fell Wednesday left a one-inch-thick blanket of ice on many roadways. On Thursday, emergency crews responded to scores of vehicle slide outs, rollovers and collisions, when motorists attempted to make their way along ice-covered roads. As of 2 p.m. Thursday, no serious injuries were reported in New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties. N.C. State Highway Patrol First Sgt. Troy Pope said the SHP had responded to 120 crashes in New Hanover and Brunswick counties since Tuesday afternoon. "We're seeing the most problems today," Pope said Thursday afternoon. "We are still encouraging people to please stay off the road. All this stuff refroze last night. Some of our secondary roads where we've not had significant traffic is still a sheet of ice."Pope said a lot of the problems have come about because motorists are driving too fast for conditions. "I drove to work this morning with a traction-control car 19 mph," he said. Yet, although the accident volume has been high, the injury rate has been low. "We've had no serious-injury accidents. We've been very fortunate," he said. "We're just trying to encourage people to stay off the roads."Thursday afternoon's high of 37 brought some partial melting, but that coupled with light rain just added to the mess. Visible to anyone who chose to drive Thursday was that some roads seemed better treated than others.Gerard Taylor, N.C. Department of Transportation county maintenance engineer for Division 3, said that's because road crews need to prioritize which roads are treated and when.Taylor said DOT crews will treat and maintain all the state-maintained roads in the region, but they consider connectivity and the volume of traffic on each road.He said crews focus on roads that connect pockets of the county and crucial services to residents.High-volume roads, such as Oleander Drive and South College Road, are considered key roadways connecting residents to medical services and commercial complexes, he said.On Thursday, the city deployed five plows on some Wilmington streets. The city, which has two plows that can be added to heavy equipment, also hired an outside company that deployed three trucks to plow, said Malissa Talbert, a city spokeswoman.On Thursday, those plows were scraping slush off some frequently traveled city streets. Crews were plowing city roads designated as "collector streets," which basically funnel neighborhood traffic to highways and major thoroughfares."Those are the roads that are most traveled," Talbert said.Those streets are separate from routes controlled by the N.C. Department of Transportation, which maintains most of the major routes inside the city. Talbert said the plows cannot scrape a hard layer of ice off the street, but when the ice starts to melt, they can remove the slush.Starting Monday, Talbert said crews covered Wilmington's collector streets with brine, which is a salty mixture that helps prevent ice from bonding to the pavement.Although crews were plowing some Wilmington streets, that does not mean the roads are safe.Friday's expected highs in the 50s will allow better melting and vastly improve roadways into Friday afternoon, the weather service said.As Thursday morning wore on and road conditions didn't improve, many businesses and counties decided against opening. And reports of traffic accidents and ice-related injuries continued to come in. Between Wednesday afternoon and late Thursday morning, Wilmington first responders received 27 reports of people falling, 10 in which they suffered injuries such as broken and fractured bones; 59 vehicle accidents – 10 of those between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. Thursday – with 13 people injured; 50 calls to assist stuck or broken down motorists; and 57 calls of hazardous driving, including reports of vehicles towing sleds, people sledding in roads and vehicles doing donuts in parking lots, according to county-wide numbers released by the Wilmington Police Department on Thursday. "We are certainly recommending that people not drive at all if they don't have to," WPD spokeswoman Linda Rawley said. "If people do go out, they need to exercise extreme caution and drive slowly ... and don't pull sleds with your cars."In Brunswick County, law enforcement was furiously working to clear up wrecks caused by the slippery conditions, said Brunswick County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Emily Flax."Most of the secondary roads are impassable. We know everyone is getting restless with cabin fever, but it is very, very dangerous out there," she said. Flax said there had been multiple accidents throughout the county as a result of the extreme icy conditions. "I am asking citizens to please stay off the roads until conditions improve. Emergency officials are out and about and our 911 center is operating in the event of emergencies," said Brunswick Sheriff John Ingram.

Staff writers Caitlin Dineen and Julian March contributed to this story.